Weekly goals: 150 minutes a week instead of 30 every day

Why a weekly goal often fits better

Exercise guidelines don't talk about days. The WHO recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week for adults, and how you get there is up to you: five times 30 minutes, three times 50, or a long hike on Sunday plus two walks. A tracker that insists on 30 minutes every day turns a good week with two long sessions into a row of failed days.

The same goes for reading, learning a language or practising an instrument. What counts is what adds up by the end of the week, not whether Wednesday was empty.

Two kinds of weekly goals

• X days a week: for yes-or-no habits, or for a daily amount you want to hit on some days. "Workout, 3 times a week" or "20 pages, on 4 days a week". The week is done as soon as you reach the number of days.
• Weekly total: for amounts. "Exercise, 150 minutes a week". There's no daily target; every minute you log goes into the week, and the week is done once the total reaches your goal.

Setting up a weekly total

1. 1

   Create a counting habit

   Create a habit or open an existing one, choose "Count" and a unit, for example minutes.

2. 2

   Choose "X times a week"

   In the schedule, pick "X times a week" and switch from "Reach it on X days" to "Weekly total".

3. 3

   Enter the goal per week

   Type in your weekly goal, say 150. The Today card then shows something like "90 of 150 min this week" with a ring that fills up.

Even quicker: when you sign up, the Fitness template already contains "150 minutes of exercise a week" as a weekly total.

Streaks, freeze days and XP

• The streak counts weeks. The current week never breaks it; a week only counts once it's over.
• Freeze days work as with every weekly goal: 7 days with progress inside an unbroken run of weeks earn one, and a missed week uses it up.
• Every day you log something towards a weekly total earns 10 XP, just like a completed daily habit.
• Volume badges such as 1,000 minutes or 500 pages keep adding up your totals.
• On the habit's page a bar per week shows whether you made it, and the heatmap shows each day's amount as colour intensity.
• Reminders only come while the week is still open and you haven't logged anything that day.

Holidays and sick days

If you pause a habit with a weekly goal for part of a week, the goal shrinks with it, rounded up. Say your week starts on Monday and you pause from Thursday to Sunday: instead of 150 minutes, 65 are enough that week. A fully paused week doesn't count at all. Skipping a single day, on the other hand, doesn't lower the goal.